While the phenomenon of appreciating bad games exists everywhere in the world, perhaps no player base is as conscious of it as those in Japan. Unlike us, they have a very concise word for describing terrible games: kusoge. That’s "kuso," meaning crap, and "ge," as in geemu or game. Crap game, see?
Perhaps the most infamous, and sometimes believed to be the original recipient of that title, is the Famicom/NES port of Spelunker. For some reason, Spelunker sold decently well, but its reputation for being unreasonably difficult spread to the point of it becoming a cultural phenomenon in Japan. The main character’s frailty even found its way into a turn of phrase, “spelunker taishitsu,” or spelunker’s constitution, which is commonly applied to athletes who are frequently or easily injured. I bet you didn’t realize you’d be getting a Japanese lesson here.
